In this month's Transition Haslemere newsletter:

• green drinks

• wildlife gardening

• food festival

• books wanted

• book to tree

• farmers market

• No Straight Road

• purging buckthorn

Green drinks

Since it is harvest time we will focus on food this month. We will hear from COPSE about their pasteurising project and Friday evening apple picking walks, as well as about our allotment and discuss our stall at the food festival. From 7.30pm on Thursday 4 September in the Snug at The Mill in Critchmere Lane. 

Gardening for wildlife 

Join Haslemere Biodiversity for an evening celebrating gardens as places of beauty, relaxation and biodiversity restoration. Every flower bed, hedge and compost heap can become a wildlife haven. There will be talks on bumble bees and swifts, stories and practical tips, as well as light refreshments. Tuesday 2 September, 7-9pm, Haslemere Museum, High Street.

Food festival

Gareth and Claire of COPSE will be pressing apples on our stall at the Haslemere Food Festival on Saturday 20 September, 10am to 4pm, Lion Green. Come and taste the juice as well as visit the variety of other food and drink stalls and enjoy the entertainment on throughout the day.

Books wanted

Having sold much of our stock in July and August for holiday reading, we are in need of new supplies. If you are wanting to pass on contemporary paperback fiction and non-fiction or children's books in reasonable condition, they will be gratefully received. We can collect. Contact info@transitionhaslemere.org.

Books become a tree

The catchphrase of our secondhand bookstall is 'Turning books into trees'. From the outset over 15 years ago we committed to donating a quarter of our takings to sponsoring fruit trees in the National Trust's heritage orchards at Swan Barn Farm. It costs £250 to buy, plant and care for a tree over its lifetime. We have just reached another milestone where we will be sponsoring our fourth tree. We'll be working with the Trust's rangers to identify an appropriate species and plant it in the winter.

Farmers' market and repair cafe

We will have our stall at the market on Saturday 6 September from 10am to 2pm. The Repair Cafe will be at the Swan Inn on the same day from 10am to 1pm. 

Book of the month: No Straight Road Takes You There, by Rebecca Solnit 

The message of this collection of essays on climate, nature and social issues is that because the future is not fixed there is room for hope. In her fierce and unflinching analysis of our challenges, Solnit doesn't advocate optimism, nor pessimism, but activism.

  

Tree of the month: Purging buckthorn    

As the names suggests, the berries of purging buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) have a strong laxative effect. It is native to Britain and found across Europe, northwest Africa and western Asia. It has grey-brown bark and long thorns and is the primary food source of the brimstone butterfly. The tree in the photo is on Witley Common. It fell but has continued to send send up branches from its horizontal trunk.

  

Editor: Clive Davidson

Transition Haslemere

info@transitionhaslemere.org